Kukla's Korner Hockey

Entries with the tag: josh ho-sang

“[The fans] can be upset he’s not here,” Weight told Newsday on Saturday morning. “They see his skill, they look at analytics. I understand that. But why did Tanner Fritz get an opportunity? Why did Steve Bernier come up right away? That is how you build your whole organization, with accountability. And there has to be accountability. There has to.”

Weight said Josh Bailey’s injury on Jan. 5 should have been the perfect opportunity for Ho-Sang to come back to the Islanders, where he began this season. But the Islanders organization — that’s GM Garth Snow, Weight (who is also an assistant GM), Bridgeport coach Brent Thompson and assistant GM Chris Lamoriello — didn’t see where Ho-Sang would have learned much since he wasn’t, in their view, working hard in the AHL.

“It’s a crying shame he’s not playing with John Tavares when Bails goes down,” Weight said. “We had six guys out. It was a perfect opportunity. And Josh should be upset with himself.

Josh Ho-Sang was one of the last five players on the ice Wednesday for AHL Bridgeport’s morning skate at Webster Bank Arena.

He was firing slap shots from the blue line in between sprints as he put in extra work long after most of his teammates had skated off to the locker room to prepare for that night’s game against Hartford.

There was no game for Ho-Sang to save his legs for.

For the first time this AHL season — not including the day off he got on Dec. 17 that would have been his fifth game in five days — the mercurial winger was scratched.

“When you start the year in the NHL and then get scratched in the AHL in the same year, it’s kind of … it’s kind of mentally tough,” Ho-Sang told The Post after coming off the ice.

Doug Weight had nothing but praise for Ho-Sang and said the rookie took this demotion well.

“He did or he’s a damn good actor,” Weight said. “We’ve had great talks. It’s never easy, whether it’s a conversation about being scratched or something like this. It was lengthy, good, healthy and from what I take from it, he couldn’t be more excited to go down, prove to himself and the organization that this isn’t going to go on anymore, that we do need him and he’ll come back and help us here. I suspect the way he’s taken this he’ll be pushing to get back real quick. Nothing is negative about the relationship — people will read into it but there’s no failure in it.”...

“I don’t think we’re as good a team as we can be without Josh on the ice. He can make us better and there’s some areas he wants to address,” Weight said. “He wants to find out how to be better at those things. We’re all in a good place with this relationship, it’s on the right path. And we have the utmost respect for Brent and what he instills in his guys.”

Keep one eye glued on Josh Ho-Sang this coming season. He may be the sport’s most fascinating figure without a guaranteed job in the NHL.

The 2014 New York Islanders first-rounder will likely land on the farm in Bridgeport, Conn., after four years of junior. A colourful youngster with an enviable skill set on the wing, Ho-Sang is primed to get a chance to impress at the AHL level.

Among the 20-year-old’s various exploits: two years ago Ho-Sang publicly chastised Hockey Canada for not dispensing the respect he feels he deserves; and last fall he slept through Day 1 of the Isles’ main camp.

The Thornhill, Ont. product’s brash personality rubs some people the wrong way. Unfortunately for them, Ho-Sang doesn’t seem to care what other people think of him — which is admirable. On the ice, he is a supremely gifted passer and stickhandler with 337 points in 288 career Ontario Hockey League games.

Through a spokesperson, Ho-Sang on Wednesday declined multiple interview requests at BioSteel Camp. Perhaps his headline-making days are over?

Along the way, there have been many detractors of Josh Ho-Sang. And yet nobody has disputed his talent, to be on display when the Islanders’ 2014 first-round pick (28th overall) takes the ice at the team’s Blue-and-White prospects scrimmage Wednesday night at Barclays Center.

But the personality and the attitude of this brash 19-year-old, well, that’s something different. It so often rubbed people the wrong way as he plowed through the junior ranks in Canada, including the gurus who overlooked his abundant on-ice skills and never picked him for a big-time international competition, a decision that had drawn his outspoken ire.

And yet in all of that, there is a distinct feeling if and when he becomes a part of this Islanders team, New York might embrace his personality rather than ridicule it.

“You have to think you’re the best player,” Ho-Sang told The Post in a refreshing, matter-of-fact way at the Islanders prospect camp at Eisenhower Park on Tuesday.

If you don't follow Paul on Twitter, you should for many reasons, including the fact that he posts a significant amount of content that doesn't quite make blog standards, generally because it's more "talk" than "news" (and we want you to get the news here on KK, not the fluffernutter). Three of those kinds stories follow:

1. Tomas Kaberle is 36, he posted a less-than-enthralling 4 goals, 20 assists and a -8 in 48 games with HC Kladno of the Czech Extraliga this past season (and 3 assists and a -5 in 5 games for the Czech Olympic team; I'm not sure if the pass-first-past-second-and-pass-third defenseman ever shoots the puck), but he showed up at Biosteel Sports' pro camp in Toronto on Monday, and in addition to reminiscing upon his time spent in Toronto, Kaberle told the National Post's Michael Traikos that he's got a try-out deal in the works...

“It’s not in Ontario,” Kaberle said Monday at the BioSteel Pro Hockey Camp at St. Michael’s College. “I’m planning to stay around here if possible, so we’ll see what’s going to happen in the next few weeks.”

Kaberle discussed his decision to spend a year with his hometown team...

After a solid debut season in the Ontario Hockey League as a 16-year-old with the Windsor Spitfires, finishing fourth on the team with 44 points, Ho-Sang followed it up this past year by leading his team in points (85) and assists (53) while tying for the lead in goals (32). But despite a quick and productive start to his OHL career, Ho-Sang was overlooked for Team Canada's Under 18 team in the spring, was not included on the 2013 U18 team to play at the Ivan Hlinka Tournament and was not invited to Team Canada's World Junior summer development camp roster this year.

He asks, why?

"The fact that I haven't been invited to a camp, it's insulting," Ho-Sang said frankly. "I've done nothing to them (Hockey Canada). It's not like they invited me to U17 and U18 and I messed up at all that stuff. I haven't been invited back since my first year in the OHL in December. It's been a year and a half; I haven't been a part of any Hockey Canada stuff."

But he has a philosophy as to why invites have not been coming his way.

"They can't invite me to that stuff because they're afraid," he said. "If I go there and do well, then they have no reason not to put me on the World Junior team." Asked directly why Hockey Canada wouldn't want him on that team, Ho-Sang, looking puzzled, responded, "I don't know."

You'll have to pardon me for saying this out loud: one of the most important parts of the draft combine in Toronto is that it gives teams the opportunity to interview players and get a bead on their mental maturity.

When you're 17 or 18 and you're an incredibly-talented hockey player, you tend to assume that your shit doesn't stink (frankly, that's the case for many 17-to-18-year-old males, period). I've found that players who don't eventually grow out of the me-me-me phase "don't make it" because they refuse to believe that they need to self-improve in terms of fitness, off-ice preparation or their on-ice skills.

In the case of controversial Windsor Spitfires prospect Josh Ho-Sang, his long-term suspension and team-related indiscretions get lumped in with a harder Canadian question: are scouts and teams allowing immaturity and intense personality to lump him in with the Evander Kanes, Dustin Byfugliens and P.K. Subbans of the hockey world because he's black?

The Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons profiled Ho-Sang, stating that more than a few teams have the 5'11," 175-pound forward on their "No-Draft List," and Simmons found that Ho-Sang was more than willing to address the elephant in the room:

The NHL's 22nd-ranked North American skater is a 5'11," 175-pound winger who posted 32 goals, 53 assists and 85 points for the OHL's Windsor Spitfires this past season, and NHL.com's draft profile for said player offers the following scouting report:

NHL Central Scouting’s Chris Edwards: "He handles the puck very well at top speed and sees the ice well. His skating is excellent and his first step is explosive. He cuts to the middle often and can split the defense with surprising speed.”

Red Line Report, a prominent professional scouting service, had this to say about [Josh] Ho-Sang in their 2014 mock draft, in which they predicted he would go 22nd overall when selections begin Friday in Philadelphia: “Super skills, but can be erratic as Toronto’s mayor.”

They just compared Ho-Sang to Rob Ford, the foul-mouthed, crack-smoking boss of the GTA. That’s gotta sting.

Well, maybe it would, if Ho-Sang paid attention to such talk.

“Everybody has their opinion and everyone is entitled to their opinion,” Ho-Sang said. “Every NHL team is entitled to their opinion and if a team thinks they should take me 10th overall, or if a team thinks that they shouldn’t, then that’s up to them.”